The thing people seem to be missing is that team movies have been done before Avengers and will be done after Avengers without separate intro movies for the team members. It's just that most other team movies don't portray super powers.

Hell, the "gather the team" storyline is a tradition in some genres like westerns. I think DC can make it work.

Click to expand...

Good point. The Seven Samurai, The Dirty Dozen, Ocean's Eleven -- there are tons of movies about assembling a team of protagonists the audience has no prior familiarity with. There are even superhero examples, like Mystery Men and The Incredibles.

Click to expand...

The scenario was that Batman and Superman stand on a battle field at the END of their film and Batman goes "Here a 4 new heroes" and then it continues in the new film. So there's no "gather the team" storyline in that one. Only a rock ballad.

To me, the question "Why didn't you do it like those other people did it?" provides its own answer. The fact that Marvel did it one way is the best possible reason for DC/Warner Bros. to do it a different way.

Click to expand...

I don't think it's even a case of 'Marvel did it this way so they must do it a different way.' I think it's simply a case of do it whatever way works best for them and the movie. That could be the Marvel approach, could be a different approach.

Either way, looking over their shoulder at Marvel, whether to imitate or to make a point of acting differently, seems to be the wrong way to go.

The scenario was that Batman and Superman stand on a battle field at the END of their film and Batman goes "Here a 4 new heroes" and then it continues in the new film. So there's no "gather the team" storyline in that one. Only a rock ballad.

Click to expand...

Sure there is. In the JL movie you intro with the same scene, then intercut flashback scenes of Batman recruiting the other 4 heroes while they finish that battle. Then continue with the movie. It practically writes itself.

Wether they're going to reboot GL completely or not, that version of Waller should be retconned either way. It's not as if the character was very memorable, anyway.

Click to expand...

They should absolutely reboot GL, and yeah, that version, not so great. But laying it on Bassett? Foolish. She's a great actress with a commanding presence. GL was rife with hack writing and poor direction. She did was she could with...well...shit.

Click to expand...

I didn't realize I was doing that.

Click to expand...

You sorta did... implying that she couldn't be intimidating, like Bates can.

I'm not saying that GL failed because of Bassett, I'm saying Bassett didn't have much to work with to shine as Waller.

I don't think it's even a case of 'Marvel did it this way so they must do it a different way.' I think it's simply a case of do it whatever way works best for them and the movie. That could be the Marvel approach, could be a different approach.

Either way, looking over their shoulder at Marvel, whether to imitate or to make a point of acting differently, seems to be the wrong way to go.

Sure there is. In the JL movie you intro with the same scene, then intercut flashback scenes of Batman recruiting the other 4 heroes while they finish that battle. Then continue with the movie. It practically writes itself.

Click to expand...

Why do you even need the flashbacks? As has been mentioned above, there's a long history of "gather the team" movies, and there are plenty of ways of introducing team members that don't require flashbacks to their origins or recruitment.

One way to do it might be the X-Men approach, used not only in the first movie but in various animated adaptations as well, not to mention numerous other team stories such as Stargate Universe or the movie 9 (which I just saw so it's fresh in my mind): Begin with one character being recruited to join a pre-existing team or group, and use that character as the audience surrogate, letting the viewers meet the characters and learn about the backstory along with the surrogate. In this case, maybe make Batman the viewpoint character as Superman tries to convince him to join the extant Justice League. Or maybe have Princess Diana come into the outside world, establish herself as a hero, and then get recruited into the League. Or focus on a young hero who's just gotten powers and begun fighting crime -- say, Flash or Cyborg -- and follow them through their induction into the League.

If (ok, when) they do a Justice League movie, I would rather it be a team building movie (ala the examples Christopher has mentioned)... something different than Marvel's approach would feel refreshing... and then they can go more in depth in the inevitable spin offs.

Well, I didn't say flashbacks were the only way to do it. Merely A way.

Click to expand...

Flashbacks may be more effective for some characters than others. The Flash, for example, has a much simpler origin than, say, Wonder Woman. All you need to do is show Barry working in a police forensics lab, depict an accident involving electricity and chemicals, watch him begin to discover his abilities, and then flash forward (ahem) to Barry in the costume.

Anyone who got their powers through a singular event can be taken care of this way. That lets the writers reserve more story time for characters whose backstory is actually part of their identity and needs to be told — Wonder Woman, Hawkman, Batman (if it's still deemed necessary)....

The recent new 52 Justice League origin or variations of the first origin story work well without going into a lot of back story.

Please don't get into a critique of the actual plotting, but a story like the battle with Darkseid where characters are introduced gradually would serve fine for a movie. Alternatively, as someone mentioned earlier, one character could serve as the point of view for the audience. Personally, if the writers were to go that route, it should be someone with whom the audience is less familiar such as Cyborg, J'onn J'onzz, or even Hawkman/woman.

Most characters don't need their origins told. The audience has a passing familiarity with the big three especially. The rest of the League has fairly straightforward powers that the viewer can figure out fairly easily.

Many of the early JL stories would introduce the characters working on their own before getting together with the team.

Yes, it is. And it's a huge risk. I think it's a mistake, and I will be very surprised if it works out. Maybe if you brought in someone REALLY good with DC's characters, like Bruce Timm, it could be pulled off.

Barring someone like that in charge, I have NO confidence in this project. There's just too much working against it.

Really though, X-men was a great movie. It was a lot of fun, did a great job of bringing these comic book characters into the "real world", and jump started the whole super-hero film trend.

Justice League just needs solid writing and direction along with competent acting and it will be a success.

Click to expand...

It had the virtue at the time of being the first really serious attempt at the franchise. They got lucky on the casting of most of the characters (Storm being a prominent exception).

Even at the time though, I remember a lot of "is that it?" type criticism. The FX tech even that recently wasn't up to really showcasing their powers properly, and Singer crafted a film that deliberatly avoided the need for large, "big" scenes becacause of it.

Contrast that with First Class, which, even with all the continuity issues, was the big-scale "super" version of the X-Men that many people were expecting the first one to be.

Actually, SG:U is exactly what I fear they'll wind up with: a bunch of unproven actors playing characters who we don't know how they will turn out yet because they are for all intents and purposes "new" (outside of Supes and Bats).

^ I'd rather see a continuation of Batman with Gordon-Levitt. They already have their billion-dollar franchise with Nolan's series. They don't need to push for a Justice League movie hoping to copy what the Marvel movies did.

I'm not ready to buy into this.
It sounds like fanboy hopes typing away at the keyboard. As if by simply placing the idea into the consciousness of the 'net it will get to where it needs to be and become reality.
Some would say this has happened before of course but I'm not buying this at it's current rumor mill state.

They'll do something because as it stands 'The Man of Steel' is the only DC movie they'll have to lead into this. Every Marvel movie was doing this from the beginning. I think they've got to do something similar to get attention to the film.

Avengers had scenes added at the last minute for the after credits so I don't see why they can't something quickly like that with MOS.

I think the better question is do we really want the first time Superman and Batman appear on screen to NOT be Clark and Bruce? I'll have trouble accepting him even as Batman honestly if it's JLG. Firstly he's not Bruce and looks 19. Sure the suit will beef him up ala Keaton but he's still just a poor substitute for the real thing. It seems a poor attempt to make the Nolan saga part of something more than it was designed to be.